History Main / SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', wild Pokémon can call for help. Sometimes this results in Pokémon of the same species or evolutionary line appearing in battle to fight your Pokémon, but sometimes the call for help will attract a Pokémon that ''preys'' on the first Pokémon and will attack it instead, like Carbink and Sableye, or Mareanie and Corsola. Some belligerent and territorial Pokémon, like Stufful, will attack ''each other'' instead of your Pokémon.

** When Emil gains Ratatosk mode, the only thing it does gameplay-wise is give him more aggressive attacks and let him learn his first arte rather than increasing any of his stats, making it seem like a PowerUpLetDown. [[spoiler:Later, it's revealed that Ratatosk is his true and more confident personality rather than an external power-up. Once Emil becomes more confident, he's able to fight just as effectively even without Ratatosk in control.]]

* ''Videogame/TheSecretWorld'': ** Player characters gain their powers by being symbiotically bonded to a biomechanical construct from a past age known as a bee that gives them access to far more power than most people get on their own. Such powers include increased skill and greater skill gain in using magic, explaining why the characters are generally better than regular people at magic and how they can quickly grow far more powerful. The Bees, as they're called, are also immortal; if killed, they appear in the spirit world and can either revive their body or reconstitute it at a nearby anima well. It's so difficult to kill such a being that only a few enemies you ever encounter could even try it, and it takes so long that they find more creative ways to occupy your time while they work on accomplishing their goals. Why are there honeycomb symbols that give the player access to snippets of lore about enemies, events, and places? Because the hive mind of the being you're bonded with sometimes gives you a little information about a subject. Why do you have to spend so much on weapons when you could just grab a dead enemy's gun? Because you require a weapon capable of channeling magical power, which also explains why guns you use don't eject casings and can reappear with your dead body. Why do clothing, plastic surgery, and even a haircut cost so much? None of that is so easy to pull off when a person's body can heal anything up to and including death and dismemberment, then reappear out of thin air looking the same as when they were just killed. Even the various locations not really advancing on in time is explainable both because they're all in some form of crisis that's more important than redecorating, and because the travel hub sends people to specific points in both space and time.

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* ''Videogame/TheSecretWorld'': ''Videogame/TheSecretWorld'' goes a long way to justify its gameplay tropes in-story:** SkillScoresAndPerks: Player characters gain their powers by being symbiotically [[TheSymbiote symbiotically]] bonded to a biomechanical construct from a past age known as a bee that gives them access to far more power than most people get on their own. Such powers include increased skill and greater skill gain in using magic, explaining why the characters are generally better than regular people at magic and how they can quickly grow far more powerful. powerful.** DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: The Bees, as they're called, are also immortal; if killed, they appear in the spirit world and can either revive their body or reconstitute it at a nearby anima well. It's so difficult to kill such a being that only a few enemies you ever encounter could even try it, and it takes so long that they find more creative ways to occupy your time while they work on accomplishing their goals. goals.** NoticeThis: Why are there honeycomb symbols that give the player access to snippets of lore about enemies, events, and places? Because the hive mind of the being you're bonded with sometimes gives you a little information about a subject. subject.** UnusableEnemyEquipment: Why do you have to spend so much on weapons when you could just grab a dead enemy's gun? Because you require a weapon capable of channeling magical power, which also explains why guns you use don't eject casings and can reappear with your dead body. body.** MoneySink: Why do clothing, plastic surgery, and even a haircut cost so much? None of that is so easy to pull off when a person's body can heal anything up to and including death and dismemberment, then reappear out of thin air looking the same as when they were just killed. killed.** PerpetuallyStatic: Even the various locations not really advancing on in time is explainable both because they're all in some form of crisis that's more important than redecorating, and because the travel hub sends people to specific points in both space and time.

* ''Videogame/TheSecretWorld'': ** Player characters gain their powers by being symbiotically bonded to a biomechanical construct from a past age known as a bee that gives them access to far more power than most people get on their own. Such powers include increased skill and greater skill gain in using magic, explaining why the characters are generally better than regular people at magic and how they can quickly grow far more powerful. The Bees, as they're called, are also immortal; if killed, they appear in the spirit world and can either revive their body or reconstitute it at a nearby anima well. It's so difficult to kill such a being that only a few enemies you ever encounter could even try it, and it takes so long that they find more creative ways to occupy your time while they work on accomplishing their goals. Why are there honeycomb symbols that give the player access to snippets of lore about enemies, events, and places? Because the hive mind of the being you're bonded with sometimes gives you a little information about a subject. Why do you have to spend so much on weapons when you could just grab a dead enemy's gun? Because you require a weapon capable of channeling magical power, which also explains why guns you use don't eject casings and can reappear with your dead body. Why do clothing, plastic surgery, and even a haircut cost so much? None of that is so easy to pull off when a person's body can heal anything up to and including death and dismemberment, then reappear out of thin air looking the same as when they were just killed. Even the various locations not really advancing on in time is explainable both because they're all in some form of crisis that's more important than redecorating, and because the travel hub sends people to specific points in both space and time.

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' makes wonderful usage of the DS' dual-screen functionality for [[spoiler: the surprise plot-twist that you're playing two people with a MindLink.]]** When in the novel sections, character interactions are often displayed on the top/left screen with animations and chatboxes as if they're from the ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney'' games, while most of their actions are described in detail on the bottom/right screen in PurpleProse text. [[spoiler: It's to show that the two narrator characters have completely different writing styles.]]** During escape puzzles, the top and bottom screens will show the rooms exactly the same unless the player zooms in on an area or accesses their inventory/files, with the top screen being used exclusively for character speech. [[spoiler: The bottom screen is Akane, the true player character, who is copying everything the smarter Junpei.]]* There's a very good reason why ''999'' and it's sequel, ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' have NewGamePlus.

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* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' makes wonderful usage of the DS' DS's dual-screen functionality for [[spoiler: the surprise plot-twist [[spoiler:the plot twist that you're playing two people with a MindLink.]]people]]:** When in the novel sections, character interactions Junpei's thoughts are often displayed on the top/left screen with animations and chatboxes as if they're from the ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney'' games, in first person, while most of their his actions are described in detail on the bottom/right screen in PurpleProse text. [[spoiler: It's to show third person. [[spoiler:This foreshadows the fact that the there are two narrator characters have completely different writing styles.narrators.]]** During escape puzzles, the top and bottom screens will show the rooms exactly the same unless the player zooms in on an area or accesses their inventory/files, with the top screen being used exclusively for character speech. [[spoiler: The [[spoiler:The bottom screen is Akane, the true player character, who is copying everything giving all the smarter Junpei.]]* There's a very good reason why ''999'' and it's sequel, ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' have NewGamePlus.answers to Junpei with him none the wiser.]]

* The ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' games (as well as ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'') go to great lengths to design the whole worldbuilding about the multiplayer elements and unlimited character lives. The Souls games are set in cyclical universes consisting of infnite paralel worlds and at the end of the cycle time flows in irregular ways and people constantly move between different worlds. The player characters are also undead so they never really die but only find themselves back in the same place they were in a few minutes ago. Which also makes it possible that some characters appear in multiple games even though apparently thousands of years have passed.** ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' is less explicit about it but is still set in a world where the dreams and the waking world are almost indistinguishable and forces are at work that are transcending reality.

** Obsidian turned "I have a bad feeling about this" (a CatchPhrase used in every ''Franchise/StarWars'' movie) into a gameplay mechanic--namely, signifying that you should save your game at that point.

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** Obsidian turned "I have a bad feeling about this" (a CatchPhrase used in every ''Franchise/StarWars'' movie) into a gameplay mechanic--namely, signifying that you should save your game at that point. [[spoiler: It's integrated even further than that. Atton, the person who says it the most, is Force-sensitive.]]

* Most characters in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' can take two [[PrestigeClass specializations]], but [[TheBigGuy Sten]] can only take one. Sten is Qunari - the culture he comes from upholds CripplingOverspecialization as a key virtue. He can't learn two specializations because doing so is, effectively, against his religion!

** If you look closely durring the final boss of the first game, you'll notice that [[spoiler: most of Kessler's attacks are more powerful versions of Cole's attacks, acting as a last bit of {{Foreshadowing}} before the big reveal of Kessler's true identity.]]

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** If you look closely durring during the final boss of the first game, you'll notice that [[spoiler: most of Kessler's attacks are more powerful versions of Cole's attacks, acting as a last bit of {{Foreshadowing}} before the big reveal of Kessler's true identity.]]

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